"Ratulu" in India, "khoai mỡ" in Vietname, "Uhi" in Hawaii, "Ube (pronounced OO-beh)" in the Philippines....

Botanically: Dioscorea alata

This beautiful root crop is a very popular starch in the Philippines and I often craved it as it was the main ingredient in many of my favorite childhood snacks and desserts.

It has a lovely smooth texture, a stunningly beautiful flesh that's deep pink/violet when cut into raw and turns a smokey deep purple and has a wonderfully sweet, starchy flavor that's baked or roasted like a baked potato. It is also made into a sweet paste that's used to flavor cakes, sweet porridge, and added to make the infamous Halo-halo: a super sweet dessert consisting of fresh and preserved tropical fruits topped with shaved ice, ice cream, a dollop of ube, and condensed milk with sugar.

While it's kind of cold to have Halo-halo during the winter, I played around in the kitchen and came up with this pretty concoction integrating a little East/West influence in presentation.

A warm weather plant we can't really grow here in the Pacific Northwest, but it's quite vigorous and is actually invasive in parts of the Southeast. It's often a seasonal root vegetable available mostly during the fall and winter months so you don't often see it, but when you do, it's definitely worth trying!

Thanks for that correction!! It was pretty confusing as I was told by the vendors it was "Ube" so I just assumed that it was Dioscorea. Maybe most Filipinos think that this Okinawan Purple Yam is ube because they want it to be. Hhahahaha

I better seek out the true Ube and compare next winter. Most of the "ube" we get is processed in a jar ready to use.